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The Bias Assimilation Effect and Attitude Polarization in AIoT Smart Healthcare Word-of-Mouth
Communication

whether expletive-laden or emotionally charged online reviews erode their own credibility
or intensify polarization. Investigating such instances of uncivil WOM may deepen our
understanding of persuasive dynamics.

5. Contributions

5.1 Theoretical Contributions

First, we extend the literature on assimilation bias to AIoT healthcare reviews.
Research on attitude consistency and assimilation bias has focused primarily on politics
and the news, with little attention to controversial AIoT smart-health technologies (Boysen
and Vogel, 2007; Thorson, Vraga, and Ekdale, 2010). We show that consumers find user
reviews that are more consistent with their own attitudes toward AIoT health devices more

persuasive and that these reviews give rise to less polarization. In other words, attitude
consistency makes individuals more entrenched in their beliefs. Second, echoing Gaczek,
Pozharliev, Leszczynski, and Zielinski (2023), our findings reveal that the persuasiveness
of reviews depend not only on the content on the review but by the congruence it has with

the user’s beliefs.
Third, traditional assimilation models have exclusively focused on attitude
consistency regarding a single object. Our framework focuses on attitude consistency
toward the technology and the brand; we demonstrate that both differ in their effects on

polarization regarding AIoT health technologies. This richer model clarifies how multiple
beliefs interact to shape reactions to emerging, controversial innovations. We measure
assimilation bias outside the laboratory and in actual social-media discussions of AIoT
smart-health devices. Finally, we observe that assimilation effects are stronger among

younger consumers.

5.2 Practical Implications
This study has several practical implications. First, marketing practitioners should

segment audiences on the basis of their attitudes toward AIoT health technologies to
leverage the effects of attitude consistency. They can conduct market research (surveys,
focus groups, or analytics) to discover these segments and formulate targeted messaging.
To change the minds of skeptics, practitioners should use strong, clear arguments

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